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Evernote Opens Up, Launches API, Hugs Geeks

Three huge things happened this week: (1) we released our Service API today, (2) we introduced scripting support to our Mac and Windows clients, and (3) we enabled XML import/export of your notes and notebooks from the desktop clients. What does all this mean? In short, more freedom –the freedom to use the service and clients in exciting, new ways. Let’s take it step-by-step.

Service API

Launching the Service API means that third party developers can now do all sorts of innovative things with Evernote. Want to create a new Evernote client? Go for it. Want to hook Evernote into your favorite calendaring or to-do app? Knock yourself out. Of course trust and security are important, that’s why you will always be asked to explicitly authorize any third-party access to your account. And once you’ve authorized them, then let the good times roll.

Here’s an example of an upcoming integration: Say you’re a Salesforce.com user. You’re keeping track of all your activities and customer interactions, but transferring your meeting notes and business cards is a real drag. An Evernote integration called Note Wizard will soon make this annoyance a thing of the past. Easily link your Evernote notes with your Salesforce.com account. The integration takes advantage of our text recognition, so, among other things, you can turn business card photos into searchable contacts. Track development progress on the Note Wizard blog.

Ok, so maybe you’re not a traveling salesmen, but just think about all the great possibilities when you mash up our amazing technology with your (other) favorite applications. Rock Band integration? That’s just crazy enough to work.

Mac and Windows Scripting

Ever wanted to turn Evernote into a Rube Goldberg-like event? Now you can. Scripting allows you to automate various processes, as well as integrate Evernote with other scriptable applications. Interested in pulling an RSS feed into Evernote? Now you can. Want all document scans to automatically become an Evernote note in a specific notebook. Not a problem. The possibilities are endless.

Import + Export = Data Portability

Both Evernote for Mac and Evernote for Windows are now in the import/export business. You can export and import notes and notebooks from Evernote for Windows to Evernote for Mac and vice versa. The file is a well-defined XML, which means that your Evernote data is completely portable. This also means that developers can build tools to import notes from various applications into Evernote.

This is a major step forward for Evernote and we’re incredibly excited to see what all of you create. So, please tell us what you’re doing with the API here in the comments, on Twitter, on Friendfeed, or just about anywhere else. Have fun.

The desktop clients already include ways to export to other formats. Our XML export format is more rich than HTML … you can’t have an encrypted password or an audio recording in an HTML document. So we wanted a format that could handle all of our content without losing any information.

I signed up to the Premium plan in order to be able to upload multiple pictures in one upload. Since the new mobile client came out, I am unable to do this. Will this be corrected? If not, I will be leaving…

Absolutely wonderful news. One of the things that has been keeping me a teeny bit ambivalent of using Evernote full-time is not having access to the raw data. This post puts those worries to rest and also gives me a way to use Evernote at work (we have a heinous firewall blocking access to most sites that allow posting sensitive information). Thank you for an open/portable xml format!!!

Kudos to the fantastic dev team (the mac client is just beautiful!) which is being driven by intelligent leadership up top. Thank you!!!

Way to go Evernote crew – hats off to you in keeping the product evolving and open. A critical component of the SaaS world is data portability.

Seeing as we both have APIs, maybe we should put something together. I see you are doing something with the 800 lb. gorilla in the CRM market, but you should also work with those who share your philosophy, ahem, like us.

From one company to another, congrats again and keep up the great work. We love your product here.

I have been using Evernote for a month now and love the way I can sync between my Mac, phone (WM 5) and the Internet version. I have set it up based on GTD using tags to define action categories! This app is tremendous for GTD.

However, I also handwrite notes on my phone (quite often) , so being able to sync and read them on my Mac would be phenomenal. I know I can go to the web version and read them there, but I don’t always have access to the Internet. When will Ink support be part of the Mac app?

Thanks for an almost perfect application! It has helped my productivity in ways I couldn’t imagine.
Lz

“Import of files from specific directory into evernote”
Hi, I would like to be able to designate a folder(s) where evernote monitors it for certain file types and when they are present, it adds them. This would be like a background task.

Does any of this make it easier or better for more than one user to use Evernote simultaneously? In previous versions things would get out of sync quickly if more than one user were editing docs or meta-data at the same time. Has this been fixed?

Great news on the API. One thing I’d really like to see is the ability to automatically store/update bookmarks in Evernote, and synchronize multiple computers/handheld devices. If I can open up evernote, and in one single note or notebook see all of my bookmarks, that would be awesome.

you guys are awesome. i love this software program, and i’m amazed at how quickly you guys are always rolling out new stuff. just a few weeks ago, i was wishing i could preview pdfs in the windows version and now i can. truly amazing. evernote is staying on my computer forever.

But if anyone’s short of an idea of how to use the API, I’ll offer one suggestion that I think would be fantastic: Print to Evernote. I’m a big fan of the browser integration for web clippings, and think it would be enormously useful to add notes from any application that offers printing capabilities.

I never knew this system existed, I sent my wife after a flash drive with the most memory. When she came home and I started using this Cruzer system and the encryption features along with evernote makes the cruzer a must have for anyone on the go while keeping everything you want to keep with you, well this product and the features on it are superb I can’t wait for the 80GB cruzer so I can make the cruzer my whole computer and take it with me instead of my laptop so I can have all files and programs with me all the time giving me the ability to do any of my work anywhere, “JUST AWESOME”

You can encrypt some or all of the contents of a note on the Mac and Windows version, then you’ll need to type in your decryption password to see it. The iPhone app will let you decrypt notes that you encrypted on Mac or Windows.

Sorry, but after all these years, and the import feature of Evernote still isn’t good enough for me to be able to BRING IN all 250 of my RTF notes that I already have accumulated in another software product.

Don’t you guys actually WANT people to migrate to your product? Don’t you WANT us to bring notes into your product and start using Evernote?

I go waaaay more in depth in my forum posting here: http://forum.evernote.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=15041

And, on a side note, Evernote STILL locks you in by not being able to export to any format that any other note-taking app can understand.

I’m still perplexed. I have the newest Mac desktop version, but it seems to me that I can only export notes in .enex or HTML formats, or email. Am I missing something? I’d like the security of knowing that my entire database–now well over 1000 notes–can be easily preserved in another database.